Thus Srila Prabhupada’s pastimes reveal to us how internally he was living at a different dimension of reality. He was filled with love for Krishna; his vision was to flood the world with the love he carried in his own heart.
When the devotees exhausted their brain-washing arguments, they had the ultimate attack- why Srila Prabhupada was so aggressive. The devotees said the non-devotees get angry that we answer their challenges with equal ferocity, if not more. Srila Prabhupada laughed at first and said we are giving them a taste of their own medicine. Then Srila Prabhupada appealed to devotees to remember the mood and purpose. He reminded the devotees that our goal is to please Krishna. ‘Our desire is to simply serve Krishna, as sincerely as possible. We don’t care if these non-devotees don’t accept our arguments but we shall fight for Krishna because we want to show our sincerity to Krishna.’
Despite such a high level of spiritual consciousness, Srila Prabhupada lived very humanely with his disciples and encouraged them like a loving father. During his last year of travel, two of his best cooks, Palika devi and Srutirupa devi prepared non spicy food, without oil and ghee for Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada sometimes insisted they serve him fried items and puris. When they reluctantly obliged, Srila Prabhupada complained it was not agreeable to him. Later Srila Prabhupada saw that one excellent cook named Shantilal cooked for other devotees travelling with Srila Prabhupada, and he would ask Gargamuni to quietly get some of what Shantilal cooked- it was spicy and oily. Srila Prabhupada loved it, but when the ladies discovered, they were upset that Srila Prabhupada was fed fried stuff. Srila Prabhupada laughed at the issue and told Gargamuni that his food has no spice and no spice means no taste, and no taste means no life. Both of them laughed aloud as Srila Prabhupada agreed that it’s better to die than not to eat tasty Prasad.
Srila Prabhupada’s endearing balance of divinity and humanness makes him one of the most attractive spiritual personalities to walk on this earth.
To be continued…
